Josef Koudelka. Ikonar

Archival Constellations

Editor Les Éditions Noir sur Blanc (FR) / Spector Books (EN)
Author Lars Willumeit, Jonathan Roquemore, Stuart Alexander, Tatyana Franck, Josef Koudelka
Publication date 2022
Dimensions 23,5 x 32 cm
Number of pages 268 pages
ISBN 978-2-88250-796-9 (FR) + 978-3-95905-630-4 (EN)
Price EUR 45.- / CHF 49.-

Ikonar is the nickname given to Josef Koudelka by a group of Roma he encountered on his travels. They refer to him as a "maker of icons" because they used his famous photographs of Roma communities as quasi-religious icons in their place of prayer. Koudelka being a globally respected "maker of photographs", he considers himself more as a “collector of his own images” than as a photographer.

Ikonar. Archival Constellations, which covers the period from 1960 to 2012, makes a wide range of materials available to the public, some of them unpublished. They were selected from the 30,000-plus 35 mm contact sheets in Koudelka’s archive.

Published in conjunction with the exhibition of the same title at Photo Elysée in Lausanne, this book presents portfolios of core series of his work shot in 35 mm format. These are interleaved with seven thematic constellations that represent a logical extension of his archive.

An essay reconstructing in detail the making of the Gypsies book, in its successive versions, complements this catalogue. All of this allows for parallel visual explorations of Koudelka’s work and its evolving processes of creation.

You may also like

Deborah Turbeville

The unique photographic work of Deborah Turbeville positions her as a major figure since her beginnings in the 1970s. Her work defies classification. Her images are difficult to date at first glance; they seem imbued with a dreamlike atmosphere. Turbeville stands out from her male contemporaries, wh...
See detail →

The Nominees' Book 2017

Published by Photo Elysée in partnership with Editions Photosynthèses in Arles, this book presents the projects of the eight nominees of the second edition of the Prix Elysée. Isabelle Blanc & Olivier Hilaire, Elina Brotherus, Matthias Bruggmann, David Jiménez, Sofie Knijff, Jim Naughten, Emeka ...
See detail →

The Beauty of lines

Over the course of four decades, Sondra Gilman and Celso Gonzalez-Falla have put together a collection of photographs that is widely recognized as among the World's most important private ones. Spanning the entire history of the medium, it lacks hardly any of the names that forged his history. It c...
See detail →